High School Notebook: Character counts as teams embrace Twitter

There's a growing trend of official Twitter accounts in high school sports. While most programs use the social network as a promotional device to update scores and game times, others use it to motivate their players.

By Dan Cagen/Daily News staff

MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, MA

By Dan Cagen/Daily News staff

Posted Sep. 23, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Sep 23, 2012 at 11:04 PM

By Dan Cagen/Daily News staff

Posted Sep. 23, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Sep 23, 2012 at 11:04 PM

» Social News

Like any high school football coach, Justin McKay sees his players for about two hours a day for practice and meetings.

McKay crams as much information as he can into those 120 minutes as he tries to turn around an Algonquin program that’s gone 1-10 for three straight seasons. But there’s a lot to discuss, what with guys playing two ways, coaches teaching a new offense and defense, all while trying to reverse the mentality instilled by years of losses.

So to reinforce those 120 minutes, McKay is using 140 characters.

The 28-year-old first-year coach has created a Twitter account for the program, part of a growing trend of official accounts in high school sports. While most programs use the social network as a promotional device to update scores and game times, McKay has a different intent.

The account, @THawk_Football, is private, meaning only those approved by the football staff can see the tweets. With about 25-30 players following, the coaching staff sends short, encouraging messages to its players long after they’ve left the practice field.

"We use Twitter a lot," McKay said. "We use the Internet a lot to communicate with our kids. It’s primarily run by our defensive coordinator, Mark Allen. First, we use it to communicate any changes to our kids in schedule changes. But more we use it to motivate ourselves, and we use it to motivate our kids.

"All of our stuff is geared toward positive reinforcement, that we’re proud of how we’re working and a reinforcement of principles we’re saying during the school day. We have them for two hours during the day, but this allows us to connect for more than that."

Algonquin tweeted a picture of the Daily News weekly football poll after Week 1, when the Tomahawks routed Burncoat and debuted at No. 10 in the rankings. They also sent a photo of the trophy that linebacker Mike Baker won after being named that week’s Crown Trophy/Daily News Defensive Player of the Week.

During the preseason, the staff sent out tweets of encouragement nearly every night. One example, after the first week of practice: "Great work by all through a tough week. Keep grinding! #GonkFootball"

McKay started sending tweets to reach players as an assistant at Wachusett last season, and believes Algonquin is the only program using Twitter in this manner.

"We take the model from Facebook and other social media websites," he said. "Leominster has a Facebook page where it communicates, Marlborough, too. And Twitter is the more popular handle now. And it’s quick and easy, it’s 140 characters. We’re not sending (big updates), just quick messages — ‘We’re proud of you, keep up the effort.’ Just small things like that. At 9 o’clock at night, when a kid is finishing up his homework, it means a little bit more."

Page 2 of 3 - Plenty of other local schools have picked up on the Twitter phenomenon. At least 10 schools have an account representing the entire athletic department or a specific team. Several are run by athletic directors, others by coaches and even some by the players themselves.

In Franklin, athletic director and football coach Brad Sidwell created @FHSSports in April. Sidwell mostly uses Twitter to update the local community on scores and schedule changes.

"I think a lot of people, it’s mainly the kids who are using (Twitter)," Sidwell said. "I would say it’s probably a good way to get some information out there."

Four different teams in Wellesley have Twitter accounts: football (raider_FB), boys basketball (Raider_Hoops), baseball (raider_baseball), and boys lacrosse (Raider_Lax). If you couldn’t tell, Wellesley’s nickname is the Raiders.

AD John Brown has stayed out of the process so far, although he’s encouraged his coaches to pursue it as much as they like. Brown says boys lacrosse coach Rocky Batty is the biggest fan.

"I don’t look at it too often, once in a while, but not too often," Brown said. "Some of the coaches that are really into technology, Rocky is really into that, he’s always on it. He loves that stuff. The game’s not even five minutes old, the kids aren’t even on the bus and he’s posting stuff.

"On the basketball team, kids are posting stuff during the game. It’d help me, if I’m at a home game, I can keep track of our boys basketball team, I can track the game in Weymouth.

"When they’re doing it right, it’s great."

End of an era

After a highly successful four years, Steve Martin is moving on from the Hudson softball team. Martin stepped down as the Hawks coach a few weeks ago when he became the assistant principal at Narragansett Regional Middle School. He had a 78-21 record with the Hawks.

Martin’s first year ended with a loss to Ashland in the Division 2 state title game, but with the addition of standout pitcher Jurnee Ware, the Hawks won it all in 2010. The last two seasons ended with playoff losses to Grafton, this year’s state champ.

Martin’s demeanor was rarely different after a win or loss. He was as calm in the aftermath of Hudson’s 15-inning 1-0 win in the 2010 sectional final as he was following the Hawks’ CMass semifinal loss a year later, when a questionable out call at first ended the game with the tying run about to score. His class permeated the program and will be missed. …

The Worcester Sharks will host five high school games at the DCU Center this winter as part of doubleheaders with the AHL team, two of which will involve local teams. On Jan. 13, Hudson will face Marlborough, and on Jan. 26 Algonquin plays Shrewsbury.

Page 3 of 3 - In addition, the DCU Center will be the site of the third annual Mass. State Hockey Coaches Association High School All-Star Classic on March 30.

Dan Cagen can be reached at 508-626-3848 or dcagen@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanCagen.